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A Primer of Burns

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A Primer of Burns »«3T TO BE LENT A PRIMER OF BURNS BY WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, B.A. ASSISTANT AMD LECTLKKIi IM THE UNIVERSITY OT ST. ANDREWS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. l<1ndon 1896 PREFACE These pages are mainly intended to supply the reader of Burns with such facts concerning his life and works, as are most necessary for the understanding of his poetry. These facts have been chiefly derived from the editions by Chambers and Scott Douglas ; the latter's arrangement of the poems has also been followed in tracing the development of the poet's work. The bibliography has been selected from various sources, and it is hoped that no work of importance has [been omitted. CONTENTS LIFE CHAP. PACK I. Ayrshire ...... i •• II. Edinburgh . 35 III. Dumfriesshire . .42 WORKS IV. Poems ...... 58 V. Poems {continuetf) . .86 VI. Songs 108 VII. Letters . .132 t^iii. Language . .155 BiBuoGR.\piiy . .167. Uttar^ar^ A PRIMER OF BURNS CHAPTER I. AYRSHIRE. The life of Robert Burns falls naturally into three periods. The first of these covers the years spent in his various Ayrshire homes, down to his twenty-eighth year ; the second includes the two winters spent in Edinburgh, the most brilliant period of his career, so far as worldly success and reputation go ; the third comprises the eight years in Nithsdale and Dumfries, in which he fell to some extent out of acquaintance with his older friends, and out of the notice of his country, only to become more famous in death. The family of Burnes, or Burness, belonged to Kincardineshire, w^here the poet's ancestors have been diligently traced back for several generations. His grandfather was a Robert Burnes, tenant of the farm of Clochnahill in the parish of Dunottar, who was the father of a family of eight or nine, born between 1717 and 1732. The third of these, born in 1721, was William Burnes, father of the poet.* * The eldest brother, Jan^s, settled in Montrose, and it was apparently his son who adored the spelling Burness^ which the • used. B 2 A PRIMER OF BURNS. “My forefathers,** says the poet, “rented land of, the famous noble Keiths of Marshal, and had the honour to share their fate-** Whether Robert Burnes’s misfortunes were due to this cause or not, poverty compelled his sons William and Robert to leave their native district in 1748, to seek for a living elsewhere. After two years* stay in Edinburgh, the former found his way to Ayrshire, where he obtained employment as a gardener, and afterwards leased seven acres of ground in the parish of Alloway, about a ipile and a half south from Ayr, as a market garden. Here he built a clay cottage of the ordinary but-and-ben con- struction, and here he lived until 1766, serving as gardener to Ferguson of Doonholm, then Provost of Ayr. In December 1757 he married Agnes Brown, daughter of a Carrick farmer, and the first child of the marriage was Robert, born on January ^ - 25 » brother Gilbert was born on 1709-1760. 759 1 y.- « 1ft September 28, 1760, and another five, three daughters and two sons, completed the family.* The poet’s mother is described as being possessed of a beautiful complexion, red hair, and dark eyes. She had an unbounded admiration for her husband, and “ I can by no means wonder that she highly esteemed^ him,** says John Murdoch; “for I myself have always considered William Burnes as by far the best of the • * The youngest was Isabella, afterwards Mrs. Begg, who was born in 1771. She survived till 1858, and was able to give much information regarding the poet. The chief original sources for an account of his early years are, (i) His autobiography, addressed in letter form to JDr. Moore, and written in the summer of 1787 ; (a) a letter from John Murdoch (Feb. 22, 1799), printed by Currie in 1800 ; (3) a letter from Gilbert ^Burns to Mrs. Dunlop, also given by Currie. Murdoch’s letter only comes down to the removal from Mount Oliphant. AYRSHIRE. 3 human race that ever I had the pleasure of being acquainted with.** He was of a swarthy complexion, thin hair, and a form spare and bent with labour. In his wanderings he had acquired much experience of the world. “I have met with few who understood men, their manners, and their ways, equal to him,** says his “ son ; but stubborn, ungainly integrity, and headlong, ungovernable irascibility, are disqualifying circum- I stances ; consequently was born a very poor man’s son.** Fj*om these accounts there can be little doubt which of his parents the poet most resembled, both in appearance and in temper. It is plain that his father was a man of no common stamp, yet of a kind not so rare in Scotland, —men whose innate desire for know- ledge, and power of acquiring it and reasoning upon it, raise them to a mental plane far above what their posi- tion in life might be expected to yield them. It is also Vorfh while to note Murdoch’s remark, that he spoke the English language with more propriety, both with respect to diction and pronunciation, than any man I ever knew with no greater advantages. This had a very good effect on the boys, who began to talk and reason like men much sooner than their neighbours.” doubt much of Robert’s readiness of speech came from this feature in his father’s manner. To secure the education of his children—an aim ever dear to the Scottish parent—William Burnes, along with four of his neighbours, engaged the services of a young man of eighteen, the John Murdoch quoted above, who has given a full account of the transaction. As he boarded with his employers in turn, his descrip- tion of life in the “argillaceous fabric,” a/tas “clay- biggin,” is full of interest. This was in 1765, when Robert was a little over six years old, but he had A PRIMER OF BURNS. 4 already received some instruction from his father, and he and Gilbert were usually at the head of the class, except in music, where “ Robert’s ear in particular was dull, and his voice untunable. It was long before I could get them to distinguish one tune from another.” There was no indication then of the future genius of Scottish song. ' The school-books were of a kind still in use long after this period, the Bible and Masson’s Collectiofi, In the latter Robert found particular delight in the Visiofi of Mirza and one of Addison’s hymns, while from a life of Hannibal lent him by Murdoch he received intense pleasure. Murdoch’s teaching was of a thorough nature, well adapted to bring out the latent powers of his pupils, and in later years, while yet un- known to fame, the poet records the ** many obliga- tions ” he owed to his masterly teacher.”^ ‘‘ In those years,” he elsewhere records, “I was by no' means a favourite with anybody. I was a good deal noted for a retentive memory, a stubborn, sturdy something in my disposition, and an enthusiastic idiot- piety. I say ‘ idiot-piety,’ because I was then but a child.” At Whitsunday, 1766, William Burnes quitted his^ house at Alloway, and removed to the farm of Mount Oliphant, about two miles distant, which Mount leased from his generous employer, Ferguson. One of his main reasons 17^1777 for this step was to be able to keep his children at home, instead of sending them out to serve with otheri#, exposed to all the dangers of such a life. The attendance of the boys a1^ Murdoch’s school now became irregular, in consequepce of the distance, and * Letter to Murdoch, Jan. 15, 1783. AYRSHIRE. s not long afterwards the teacher himself left the district. By this time, however, Robert had received a good training in English, and by the age of ten or eleven was “a critic in substantives, verbs and particles.’* From an old woman, named Betty Davidson, who lived with the family, he received learning of a different stamp. ‘‘She had, I suppose, the largest collection in the country of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks, spunkies, kelpies, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths, apparitions, cantraips, enchanted towers, giants, dragons, and other trumpery. This cultivated the latent seeds of poesy.” Attendance at school being now given up, the father again undertook the education of his children, teaching them arithmetic in the evenings, and in this way the two elder girls received all their education. With the two eldest boys he conversed on all subjects as if they ** had* been men, and always aimed at conveying in- struction to them. For them he borrowed works on geography, astronomy, and natural history, and sub- scribed to Stackhouse’s History of the Bible. All of these Robert eagerly read, while the accidental acquisi- tion of a collection of letters by eminent writers laid ,the foundation of his later epistolary style. Two volumes of Richardson’s Pamela which fell in his way about this time gave him his first novel, and almost the only one until many years later. In 1772 the brothers were sent week about, during a summer quarter, to the school at Dalrymple to im- prove their penmanship. It was in this year too that Murdoch returned to Ayr, having been appointed teacher of English tjiiere. He then renewed his acquaintance with the ^family, sending them Pope’s works, and some other poetry, “ the first,” says Gilbert, 6 A PRIMER OF BURNS, that we had an opportunity of reading, except what is contained in The English Collection .
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